Have fun this Easter!

Isn’t 2013 flying by quickly? It seems like only moments ago that we were celebrating Christmas and now Easter is just around the corner! The lovely thing about Easter is that it brings together the whole family – whether you are religious or not, it can still be a time for fun and celebration. This year Easter falls on March 31^st so there is still time to plan some fun family activities!

Easter just wouldn’t be Easter without a traditional egg hunt – such a simple pleasure that has timeless appeal. Hide a bunch of chocolate eggs in the garden and your children (or grand-children) will love tracking them down! It’s a great way to enjoy some fresh air and exercise – not to mention a way to bring out a healthy sense of competition! A classic egg and spoon race is another brilliant way to have fun outdoors.

You can have fun creating personalized egg baskets to make your egg hunt extra special. Just get some inexpensive plain baskets and let your children’s creativity run wild by embellishing them with felt shapes, sequins, pompoms or whatever they love!

Forget store-bought Easter cards, it’s so much more fun to make your own! Buy some pastel-colored card and get the children to invite their friends over for a creative crafty session. All you need is some crayons, paper scraps, glitter, washable school glue and whatever odds and ends you can find! Try making flowers with pipe cleaners and tissue paper, or cute chicks with stick-on googly eyes. The result will be something truly unique and special!

Egg painting is another great way to enjoy some Easter craft fun. Use kids paint and paintbrushes to decorate eggs that are hard-boiled or blown – there are lots of video tutorials online with tips and ideas. Get everyone involved and award prizes to the most inventive designs!

Easter is a time of feasting, so be sure to have plenty of indigestion tablets ready for those bloated tummies. Your local stores might be closed over Easter weekend, so make sure you’re all stocked up on things like diapers and baby wipes – things you definitely do not want to run out of over Easter!

After all that chocolate it’s extra important to make sure your teeth don’t suffer – give them a thorough clean with an OralB Pulsar Pro-Health Adult Toothbrush.  Encourage little ones to join in by treating them to a cool Power Puff Girls toothbrush to make brushing extra fun!

Enjoy the Easter sunshine by taking little ones into the garden for a teddy bear’s picnic – throw a blanket on the grass and enjoy some yummy treats from paper plates and plastic food containers. Easter chocolate cornflake nests are simple to make and taste delicious – there are lots of easy recipe ideas online. You could also bake cookies shaped like bunnies and chicks and have fun decorating them with colored icing. Children will love the novelty of eating outdoors with their VIP teddy guests!

How to…Spend more time with family

Children grow up all too fast – before you know it, they’re graduating high school and flying the nest! So it’s important to enjoy time with our families whenever we can – these golden moments create lasting memories that will be cherished for life. Busy lifestyles mean that, all too often, family time gets pushed aside by other chores. So, it’s not surprising that one of the top 10 New Year resolutions is to spend more time with family.

Got a full schedule? Don’t worry – there are lots of ways you can squeeze in extra family time!

Get organized

Make a big family wall chart to clearly mark each person’s commitments, so you can easily see when everyone is free at the same time. Color-code it with a set of Sharpies to schedule in group family time – okay so it might not be spontaneous fun, but it will ensure you get quality time where you can plan something worthwhile.

Free it up

Consider your schedule – is it crammed with classes, clubs and after-school activities? Do you find yourself spending a lot of your time driving your children from one thing to another? Maybe you’re doing too much. Family time can be just as important. Spending time with adults can be beneficial for children’s learning and development, so try cutting a couple of after-school clubs per week.

Delegate

Sharing out those time-consuming household chores will free up your time to spend having fun with the family. Encouraging your kids to get involved will give them useful experience for when they’re older – take it in turns to do the laundry and clean the bathroom. Order household supplies in bulk so you don’t have to go shopping as often – kids get fed up in supermarkets and would rather be out having fun!

Family exercise

Instead of going to the gym alone, take the whole family out for a bike ride or a swim. A hearty walk in the open air is great exercise and provides an opportunity to chat with your family and catch up on what you’ve been missing. Seek out new places instead of going to the same park every time – think of each walk as a mini-adventure to make it more fun. Pack a picnic box and make a day of it!

Use your imagination

Family time doesn’t need to be expensive – have a big craft session with glitter glue and craft kits; stage a treasure hunt for little ones; make a photo collage; play dress-up with your old clothes; bake cupcakes and have fun decorating them… the opportunities are endless! Getting creative and trying something new is a great bonding experience.

Picture it

Kids grow up fast, so preserve those special memories by carrying a disposable camera in your bag on days out. You can have hours of fun making family videos on a camcorder – remember to pack a couple of spare DVC cassettes so you don’t miss out on those priceless moments.

Speaking of “priceless” moments… check out our Baby Care Center that offers a wide array of baby products at UNBEATABLE prices.

Only a few weeks to go and the kids are back in school… are you prepared? As a busy parent you may often rely on lists to keep you organized, with that in mind Stockn’Go has decided to help remind and motivate you each week with a new list of things to do.  This weeks checklist is in honor of the kids going BACK TO SCHOOL! A bittersweet moment for most. Print out, or even download and modify the list below to be sure you are ready for the big day!

Downloadable Checklist (template from Microsoft Office 2007): Back to School Checklist

Don’t forget to check out the Stockn’Go Back to School section for great deals on school supplies!

Many parents don’t realize how important it is to pack a healthy lunch for their kids.  Food is our energy, our fuel, and with out sufficient energy how do you expect your kids to learn or even pay attention in school? It is becoming more and more clear to the world the negative effects of unhealthy eating habits.  Thanks to Dr. Oz, the authors of books such as Wheat Belly, Eat to Live and the 17 Day Diet – many adults have started to make a change in what they put in their mouths… but what about the kids? We hear of the excuses that the kids “don’t like that” or that “they will only eat pizza and chicken fingers”.  Umm yeah because that is what you are feeding them! If some let YOU eat chicken fingers and pizza all the time, why would you eat anything else?!

The key to implementing healthy food into your childs diet is to start slowly.  Most likely if you just throw a new food into your childs lunch box they are not going to eat it.  Mix new foods in with old ones that they already love and they may not even notice or they will at least be curious enough to try.  Start by mixing cooked vegetables or a good protein in with their mac n cheese, in sandwiches replace half of the amount of mayonnaise you would use with 1/2 low fat plain yogurt.  Start substituting white breads and pasta with whole grain bread and pasta.  The best tasting bread I have found is Ezeikiel bread and my favorite pasta (that doesn’t taste like cardboard) is pasta made from quinoa, artichoke or rice flour.  Also – peanutbutter has a ton of salt and sugar in it, so try and start going towards the low sodium, all natural and/or almond butters.

Another great way to get your child to eat their healthy lunch is to involve them in choosing the meals.  Instead of asking “What do you want for lunch today?” ask them “Do you want tuna or turkey? Apple, orange or banana?” Don’t let them have the freedom to completely choose or most likely they will choose the same old unhealthy things.  Give them healthy choices, and if they at least get to be part of the process, they get what they are in the mood for that day, not just what you decided to stick them with.

When you buy lunch meat try to buy the least processed as possible, or even better use leftover fresh cooked meat from the night before.  What’s more delicious than a fresh slice or chicken or turkey in a sandwich or on a salad?

Every meal your child eats should always have a source of protein and a vegetable.  If you remember that you will be on the right track.  ALSO – try to stay away from sugary drinks such as juice and soda.  Try to replace with water, flavored water, or 1% milk.

So now that we have covered that… here are a few lunch box ideas that you can take home to your kids!

Main Dishes

• fresh sliced ham, turkey, chicken or tuna sandwich with 1/2 mayo, 1/2 yogurt
• home made pizza with veggies and low fat cheese
• peanut butter/Almond butter sandwich with whole grain bread and sliced fresh fruit instead of jelly
• whole grain quesadilla with chicken, cheese and vegetables

Snacks

• string cheese
• hummus and veggies
• ranch dressing and veggie sticks
• whole grain crackers

Deserts

• Fresh fruit/fruit salad
• trail mix
• 60% cocoa chips
• low fat yogurt

Keep in mind that the more sugar and junk food that you feed them, the more sugar and junk food they will crave.  You be the boss when it comes to food, don’t let your child demand foods that are not healthy for them.  A healthy child = a happy child

Don’t forget to check out the Back 2 School section at Stockn’Go, where everything is 20% off!

Spending time with your kids doesn’t always mean you have to do something special but its great to have ideas on hand and its nice when you can turn a fun activity for the child into a learning experience.  Each moment you spend with them is a memory.  So make it count!

SUNNY DAYS

• Go for a hike – put together a list of plants, flowers, insects and trees in your area and try to find them along the way
• Go biking – stop at fun places along the way such as restaurants, fairs, rivers, lakes, or ocean
• Go camping OR set up a camp in your own back yard!
• Use Local Harvest.org to find a local farmers market to visit
• Go strawberry picking and then set up a stand to sell your pickings
• Hula Hoop – make it a competition as to who can go the longest
• Play “hot potato” with a medicine ball – great workout

RAINY DAYS

• Free Story On-Line Story Time at Barnes and Noble
• Try new restaurants. Make a list of all of the places kids in your area can eat for free using  Kids Eat For.com or Kids Meal Deals.com and create a fun eating out agenda for the summer
• Start a small business: washing cars, mowing the lawn, washing the neighbors windows, or starting a lemonade stand or selling those strawberries you picked together.
• Cook together – but instead of making cookies with all that butter and sugar, teach your kid how to make healthy options that they will love.  Great recipes can be found on The Sneaky Chef.com
• Go to the craft store and find things to paint, draw or put together.  Whatever comes from this activity can be used as a gift for friends or family later on.

Do you have any great ideas your would like to share? Please let us know!